Coca-Cola is recruiting meet and greeters and drink pourers for its David Lam Park live site pavilion. At least that's where it's supposed to be. City of Vancouver says the contract hasn't been finalized.
An open hiring call for self-motivated, outgoing individuals is planned for July 7 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Inventa's 210-1401 West 8th Ave. Vancouver office. The pay's not bad: $13 to $16 an hour.
Contemporary Security Canada, the satellite of U.S.-based security giant Contemporary Group, has the $97.419 million venue screening security contract. It's looking for screening officers, portal supervisors, venue managers and X-ray operators. Pay rates for the rent-a-cops aren't listed on the website, but an email link for resumes is.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Ohno! Surrey three-peat not happening
Canada's national short-track speedskating team is on the ice this weekend in the Pacific Coliseum where it hopes to own the podium during February's Winter Olympics.
A year ago, the United States team was in the area, on ice at the South Surrey Arena for a second year. When I talked to Apolo Anton Ohno, he anticipated one more pre-Games camp in the summer of 2009. It's not going to happen. Oh, no.
U.S. Speedskating spokesperson Peri Kinder tells me "the short-track team has no plans to travel to Vancouver during the summer."
No reason given, but there is a cost for transportation, accommodation, meals and facility rental and there is a recession.
Another dent in the City of Surrey's bid to leverage its $2.5 million sponsorship of VANOC. As it is, the $10 million Games Preparation Centre is five months late and VANOC had to look elsewhere for ceremonies performer rehearsals.
A year ago, the United States team was in the area, on ice at the South Surrey Arena for a second year. When I talked to Apolo Anton Ohno, he anticipated one more pre-Games camp in the summer of 2009. It's not going to happen. Oh, no.
U.S. Speedskating spokesperson Peri Kinder tells me "the short-track team has no plans to travel to Vancouver during the summer."
No reason given, but there is a cost for transportation, accommodation, meals and facility rental and there is a recession.
Another dent in the City of Surrey's bid to leverage its $2.5 million sponsorship of VANOC. As it is, the $10 million Games Preparation Centre is five months late and VANOC had to look elsewhere for ceremonies performer rehearsals.
Anti-monarchists like Mickey the Mini Queen (better than the real thing)
The June 27 announcement that Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean would open the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver was greeted by some Canadians with disappointment.
Queen Elizabeth II, critics said, would bring greater international attention. I say "London Liz" is yesterday's news. Jean is an immigrant success story. Obviously Prime Minister Stephen Harper thinks she represents the Canada of today and tomorrow. The fact she's a francophone Quebecer helps. The Vancouver Games have come under too much criticism for not being French enough.
Citizens for a Canadian Republic, however, will be glad to see "Mickey the Mini Queen" do the honors.
"A good decision, given the tradition in the last two decades in Canada and Australia to have the governor general do Olympic openings," said Tom Freda, national director of Citizens for a Canadian Republic. "Having the Queen officiate would be regressive and controversial. However, royal visits are one of the few times Canadians discuss the monarchy -- and when they do, support for ending it jumps. We'll have an opportunity to do that in November when Prince Charles and Camilla visit."
A new Strategic Counsel poll found 65% of respondents were in favor of phasing out the monarchy in Canada.
Queen Elizabeth II, critics said, would bring greater international attention. I say "London Liz" is yesterday's news. Jean is an immigrant success story. Obviously Prime Minister Stephen Harper thinks she represents the Canada of today and tomorrow. The fact she's a francophone Quebecer helps. The Vancouver Games have come under too much criticism for not being French enough.
Citizens for a Canadian Republic, however, will be glad to see "Mickey the Mini Queen" do the honors.
"A good decision, given the tradition in the last two decades in Canada and Australia to have the governor general do Olympic openings," said Tom Freda, national director of Citizens for a Canadian Republic. "Having the Queen officiate would be regressive and controversial. However, royal visits are one of the few times Canadians discuss the monarchy -- and when they do, support for ending it jumps. We'll have an opportunity to do that in November when Prince Charles and Camilla visit."
A new Strategic Counsel poll found 65% of respondents were in favor of phasing out the monarchy in Canada.
Cypress: commemorate the chaos
Cypress Mountain is trying to live up to the "when you have lemons, make lemonade" maxim.
Going on sale July 7 is the Cypress 2010 Commemorative Season Pass.
It commemorates the West Vancouver day resort's hosting of 2010 Winter Olympic snowboarding and freestyle skiing. It also commemorates a season of chaos and disruption for regulars.
The lodge lot and lot 1 will be closed all season. Lot 3 joins the list Jan. 4. Expect construction zones in the alpine area from the start of the season, along with "highly impacted or closed" Eagle Express Chair terrain and Rainbow ski run. "Regular services on the mountain will be subject to relocation, change and restrictions."
The alpine and nordic ski areas will be closed Feb. 1-March 8 for the Games. Public skiing and snowboarding resumes March 9 with lot 3 reopening March 15. The Cypress pass offers discounted or free access to other resorts in B.C. and Washington state during the Games.
An adult nordic pass is $174 for B.C. residents. It's $259 for alpine or $299 for the unlimited pass that also includes nordic sports. The first 1,500 to buy online get a pair of tickets to one of the 2010 Games' nightly medals award ceremonies/concerts at B.C. Place Stadium. A grand prize of a pair of tickets to the opening ceremony is also up for grabs.
Oddly, there are no tickets available via the early bird bonus or the contest for any of the actual Olympic events taking place at Cypress. According to Cypress' sales and marketing director Jeffrey Koeman, that's because "this is the offer that VANOC came up with for us to use in conjunction with our season pass offer."
Cypress, like Whistler and Blackcomb owner Intrawest, has a "make-whole" deal with VANOC for compensation if Games' operations cause a drop in business.
Going on sale July 7 is the Cypress 2010 Commemorative Season Pass.
It commemorates the West Vancouver day resort's hosting of 2010 Winter Olympic snowboarding and freestyle skiing. It also commemorates a season of chaos and disruption for regulars.
The lodge lot and lot 1 will be closed all season. Lot 3 joins the list Jan. 4. Expect construction zones in the alpine area from the start of the season, along with "highly impacted or closed" Eagle Express Chair terrain and Rainbow ski run. "Regular services on the mountain will be subject to relocation, change and restrictions."
The alpine and nordic ski areas will be closed Feb. 1-March 8 for the Games. Public skiing and snowboarding resumes March 9 with lot 3 reopening March 15. The Cypress pass offers discounted or free access to other resorts in B.C. and Washington state during the Games.
An adult nordic pass is $174 for B.C. residents. It's $259 for alpine or $299 for the unlimited pass that also includes nordic sports. The first 1,500 to buy online get a pair of tickets to one of the 2010 Games' nightly medals award ceremonies/concerts at B.C. Place Stadium. A grand prize of a pair of tickets to the opening ceremony is also up for grabs.
Oddly, there are no tickets available via the early bird bonus or the contest for any of the actual Olympic events taking place at Cypress. According to Cypress' sales and marketing director Jeffrey Koeman, that's because "this is the offer that VANOC came up with for us to use in conjunction with our season pass offer."
Cypress, like Whistler and Blackcomb owner Intrawest, has a "make-whole" deal with VANOC for compensation if Games' operations cause a drop in business.
Friday, July 3, 2009
No B.S. about BCS
There are two BCSs in North American sport.
Don't get me started about the silliness that is United States college football's Bowl Championship Series. It's a series of unrelated bowl games, not the true playoff that it should be. President Obama won't make medical insurance a right of Americans before 2012, but by golly, he's going to reform the Bowl Championship Series.
Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton is another ball of wax. Expect to see the likes of Edmonton's Pierre Lueders, Summerland's Justin Kripps, Calgary's Jeff Pain and Melissa Hollingsworth somewhere on a podium in Whistler in February. (Neat fact: Kripps was born in Hawaii and Pain in Alaska).
The north of the border BCS has partnered with Ludus Tours of Austin, Texas to market 2010 Winter Olympics hotel, hospitality, tour and airport transfer packages to fans, friends and family of the sledders and face-first sliders. Ludus has similar relationships with U.S. Bobsled and Skeleton and the Jamaican Bobsled Team, but it's the first Ludus deal with a home team for Canada's Games.
"It was very important for us to offer accommodations and hospitality assistance to Canadian athletes and their support groups," said Ludus' COO Ann Lanari.
Don't get me started about the silliness that is United States college football's Bowl Championship Series. It's a series of unrelated bowl games, not the true playoff that it should be. President Obama won't make medical insurance a right of Americans before 2012, but by golly, he's going to reform the Bowl Championship Series.
Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton is another ball of wax. Expect to see the likes of Edmonton's Pierre Lueders, Summerland's Justin Kripps, Calgary's Jeff Pain and Melissa Hollingsworth somewhere on a podium in Whistler in February. (Neat fact: Kripps was born in Hawaii and Pain in Alaska).
The north of the border BCS has partnered with Ludus Tours of Austin, Texas to market 2010 Winter Olympics hotel, hospitality, tour and airport transfer packages to fans, friends and family of the sledders and face-first sliders. Ludus has similar relationships with U.S. Bobsled and Skeleton and the Jamaican Bobsled Team, but it's the first Ludus deal with a home team for Canada's Games.
"It was very important for us to offer accommodations and hospitality assistance to Canadian athletes and their support groups," said Ludus' COO Ann Lanari.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Air Canada shows off 2010 Olympic design in Seattle
Seattle-area plane spotters got the first peek at the Vancouver 2010 decorations on an Air Canada Boeing 777. The Olympic-themed livery features the psychedelic, blue and green look of the Games with stylized athletes in action. The ski jumper, however, will appear to be going backwards when the jet is in flight. Oops. Check it out here.
Delta Airlines was a sponsor of both the Atlanta 1996 and Salt Lake 2002 Games and featured bolder, simpler graphics on its jets. Air China planes showed the Beijing 2008 Games' five mascots in sport mode. Vancouver is flying fancy.
But there is a bigger story in the air. It seems Air Canada is temporarily renting space at one of its Vancouver International Airport hangars to the Department of National Defence. Defence Construction Canada is looking for a company to do $1.5 million of work by Oct. 1. Few details are included in the procurement document. Air Canada has not returned my phone calls or emails. Joint Task Force Games in Victoria and NORAD in Winnipeg are equally dumbfounded.
There must be someone in the federal government who can talk about how part of YVR will be turned into an air force base for the 2010 Winter Olympics, just like it was for World War II.
The procurement document was published June 25.
Delta Airlines was a sponsor of both the Atlanta 1996 and Salt Lake 2002 Games and featured bolder, simpler graphics on its jets. Air China planes showed the Beijing 2008 Games' five mascots in sport mode. Vancouver is flying fancy.
But there is a bigger story in the air. It seems Air Canada is temporarily renting space at one of its Vancouver International Airport hangars to the Department of National Defence. Defence Construction Canada is looking for a company to do $1.5 million of work by Oct. 1. Few details are included in the procurement document. Air Canada has not returned my phone calls or emails. Joint Task Force Games in Victoria and NORAD in Winnipeg are equally dumbfounded.
There must be someone in the federal government who can talk about how part of YVR will be turned into an air force base for the 2010 Winter Olympics, just like it was for World War II.
The procurement document was published June 25.
Friday, June 26, 2009
EXCLUSIVE: Programs, get your programs
Coming in November is the official program of the 2010 Winter Olympics and Paralympics from Glacier Media, the parent of Business in Vancouver.
The cover price is $17.85. Sales are projected at 325,000, which would mean a $5.8 million gross. More in the next Business in Vancouver, out Monday.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
A take on VANOC's fuzzy ticket tallies
At that May 20, post-board meeting news conference, VANOC deputy CEO Dave Cobb was asked point-blank and crystal-clear by CTV Olympics reporter Mike Killeen: "what kind of revenue do you generate from 150,000 tickets?"
Cobb answered: "It'll be probably in the $40 to $50 million range. When you quickly calculate what an average price that will be, you will see it has many higher priced tickets in there. That's because we do have a significant number of opening and closing ceremonies tickets and gold medal hockey tickets. So it's a wide range. If they all go it'll be in the $50 million range."
Mike used the $50 million figure that night. I used the $40 million to $50 million quote in a story the next day. Nobody at VANOC cared to call and correct or clarify. Now, almost a month later, Cobb is backtracking.
“I may have misspoke there, the number I referred to of $50 million was what the remaining inventory in total would be,” Cobb said June 16. “I'm correcting myself now, that number related to both phase two and phase three, the majority of it was in phase two.”
By the way, there are 60,000 tickets left for Canadians to buy in the second phase. Cobb said 140,000 of the 200,000 put on sale June 6 were snapped up. Lots remain for hockey and curling preliminaries and B.C. Place victory ceremonies. The third phase is coming in the fall.
Cobb answered: "It'll be probably in the $40 to $50 million range. When you quickly calculate what an average price that will be, you will see it has many higher priced tickets in there. That's because we do have a significant number of opening and closing ceremonies tickets and gold medal hockey tickets. So it's a wide range. If they all go it'll be in the $50 million range."
Mike used the $50 million figure that night. I used the $40 million to $50 million quote in a story the next day. Nobody at VANOC cared to call and correct or clarify. Now, almost a month later, Cobb is backtracking.
“I may have misspoke there, the number I referred to of $50 million was what the remaining inventory in total would be,” Cobb said June 16. “I'm correcting myself now, that number related to both phase two and phase three, the majority of it was in phase two.”
By the way, there are 60,000 tickets left for Canadians to buy in the second phase. Cobb said 140,000 of the 200,000 put on sale June 6 were snapped up. Lots remain for hockey and curling preliminaries and B.C. Place victory ceremonies. The third phase is coming in the fall.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Two men say they're Jesus, one of them must be wrong
The headline is from Dire Straits' "Industrial Disease" and fits what you're about to read.
At the May 20 post-board meeting news conference, CTV's Mike Killeen asked deputy VANOC CEO and executive vice-president of revenue, marketing and communications Dave Cobb the simple question: "...what kind of revenue do you generate from 150,000 tickets?"
Cobb answered: "It'll be probably in the $40 to $50 million range. When you quickly calculate what an average price that will be, you will see it has many higher priced tickets in there. That's because we do have a significant number of opening and closing ceremonies tickets and gold medal hockey tickets. So it's a wide range. If they all go it'll be in the $50 million range."
On May 29, I asked vice-president of ticketing and marketing Caley Denton during a teleconference: "You said there was over 150,000 tickets available. At the news conference after the board last week Dave Cobb said the projected revenue was going to be $40 to $50 million. During the first phase domestically you sold almost $95 million of tickets, I'm just doing rough math and want you to let me know if I'm in the ballpark. But does that mean you sold 300,000 to 350,000 tickets during the first phase?"
Denton's answer?
"I won't comment on numbers and do the ballpark math, but I will say Dave's projection was right-through. It was what we have remaining, it wasn't necessarily centred around this on sale."
Cobb is Denton's superior and has authority over the department. I'm taking the $40 million to $50 million estimate as gospel.
But wait! There are now 200,000 tickets for sale on Saturday, which demands a new estimate. Nobody at VANOC could provide that on Thursday, but I whipped out my calculator again and I'm conservatively estimating another $13 million should VANOC sell the extra 50,000.
If VANOC sells out the Canadian market phase two, it will have sold 500,000 to 550,000 to the domestic public. If 70% of all 1.6 million tickets are available, that means 1.12 million would be the public inventory, half of which would go to the Canadian public.
At the May 20 post-board meeting news conference, CTV's Mike Killeen asked deputy VANOC CEO and executive vice-president of revenue, marketing and communications Dave Cobb the simple question: "...what kind of revenue do you generate from 150,000 tickets?"
Cobb answered: "It'll be probably in the $40 to $50 million range. When you quickly calculate what an average price that will be, you will see it has many higher priced tickets in there. That's because we do have a significant number of opening and closing ceremonies tickets and gold medal hockey tickets. So it's a wide range. If they all go it'll be in the $50 million range."
On May 29, I asked vice-president of ticketing and marketing Caley Denton during a teleconference: "You said there was over 150,000 tickets available. At the news conference after the board last week Dave Cobb said the projected revenue was going to be $40 to $50 million. During the first phase domestically you sold almost $95 million of tickets, I'm just doing rough math and want you to let me know if I'm in the ballpark. But does that mean you sold 300,000 to 350,000 tickets during the first phase?"
Denton's answer?
"I won't comment on numbers and do the ballpark math, but I will say Dave's projection was right-through. It was what we have remaining, it wasn't necessarily centred around this on sale."
Cobb is Denton's superior and has authority over the department. I'm taking the $40 million to $50 million estimate as gospel.
But wait! There are now 200,000 tickets for sale on Saturday, which demands a new estimate. Nobody at VANOC could provide that on Thursday, but I whipped out my calculator again and I'm conservatively estimating another $13 million should VANOC sell the extra 50,000.
If VANOC sells out the Canadian market phase two, it will have sold 500,000 to 550,000 to the domestic public. If 70% of all 1.6 million tickets are available, that means 1.12 million would be the public inventory, half of which would go to the Canadian public.
Monday, May 25, 2009
Microphone scouting at B.C. Place
Sources tell 2010 Gold Rush that audio experts from David Atkins Enterprises Productions were scheduled to be inside B.C. Place Stadium -- Vancouver's Olympic stadium -- May 25 from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. to scout locations for microphones.
The stadium is known as the din bin because of the notoriously lousy sound. It has not always been that way. Certain concerts and Grey Cup games have overcome the problem with temporary sound systems. That is precisely what Bruce Jackson is envisioning. The Aussie is the ceremonies' chief sound engineer and comes with impressive qualifications.
The stadium is known as the din bin because of the notoriously lousy sound. It has not always been that way. Certain concerts and Grey Cup games have overcome the problem with temporary sound systems. That is precisely what Bruce Jackson is envisioning. The Aussie is the ceremonies' chief sound engineer and comes with impressive qualifications.
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